Today, graphic design exists everywhere – on websites, social media, apps, logos, billboards, TV ads, flyers, and more. If you are using graphic design to support your business, it helps to know how this art and profession evolved. So, let’s take a trip through the history of graphic design and discover how it evolved. Let’s get started!
What is graphic design?
Graphic design involves creating visual content to communicate messages to a specific audience. The term is broad and is often used to categorize different areas of design, such as digital and web design. However, traditional graphic design involves print designs, including logos and branding, posters, magazine layouts, book covers, advertisements, and packaging design.
Graphic design involves combining illustrations or photos with typography to convey a message. The keyword here is communication. Graphic design requires collaborative skills, where writers produce words while photographers and artists create images. The designer’s task is to incorporate these into meaningful visual communication.
The History of Graphic Design
To understand the foundation of today’s graphic design, let’s begin with its earliest roots: the development of visual and written language and the subsequent invention of printing.
Ancient Times
Historians trace the origins of graphic design back to the early cave paintings from 38000 BC. The early forms of cave paintings were how people communicated from one generation to another. These paintings mainly featured animals, weapons, handprints, and other hunting-related drawings. Even if it was vague how humans communicated then, they used visual communication.
Language and visual representation using the alphabet were also introduced during this period. Sumerians invented writing from 3300 to 3000 BC. The early forms of writing were pictographs or symbols representing objects. Based on these pictographs, you can also notice the early forms of graphic design.
The Renaissance and Invention of the Printing Press
We can’t have graphic design without the invention of printing. In 200 CE, China used woodblock printing to stamp their designs on silk clothes and eventually on paper. Then, in 1040, Bi Sheng invented the world’s first movable type printing press made of porcelain.
The Gutenberg’s press
Source: britannica.com
Then, Johannes Gutenberg brought moveable types to Europe and introduced mass communication to Western culture. His efforts made literature and literacy affordable and accessible to the public. Before the Gutenberg press, books were expensive and rare. His invention democratized knowledge and spurred commercial design development, leading to the graphic design field as we know it today.
By the mid-15th century, printers integrated woodblock illustrations with typist sets to create illustrated printed books. The created books have decorative borders and ornamental initials, with hand-colored colors. In addition, Regiomontanus’s Calendarium, published in 1476, featured the first comprehensive title page, providing essential details about the book and its creator.
The Industrial Revolution and Modern Era
During the Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), new technologies were introduced, increasing the efficiency and production of manufacturing processes like lithography. Lithography is a printing method that involves inking a design into a stone or metal surface and transferring it to paper. This process led to chromolithography, which is simply lithography but with color.
In response to the growing industrialization of the early 20th century, the Wiener Werkstätte, a cooperative of artisans founded in 1903 by Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, and Fritz Waerndorfer, championed handcrafted design and individual expression. Their distinctive style, characterized by clean lines, geometric shapes, and a modernist aesthetic, profoundly impacted design evolution in the 20th century.
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Art and Modern Design Movements
The Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) was established in 1903. The geniuses behind this were Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, and Fritz Waerndorfer. They are the pioneers of modern design and early style influences such as Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, and Art Deco. An overview of these design movements is briefly discussed below:
Art Nouveau (New Art)
This art movement originated in Western Europe and the United States from the 1880s until World War I. The creators of Art Nouveau aimed to revive fine artistry, raise the status of craft, and create a modern design that reflected the quality of the items they created. Specifically, this aesthetic’s defining feature is its preference for flowing, organic lines over structured, geometric forms. It was evident in architecture, interiors, jewelry, and graphic design.
Art Deco
Art Deco started in Paris, where the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes coined the term. Its distinguishing features are its simple shapes, stylized and geometric decorations, and elaborate application of expensive materials. Additionally, Art Deco embodies a decadent spirit and is used in fashion, architecture, sculpture, etc.
Bauhaus
Under Walter Gropius’s leadership, the Bauhaus introduced a novel approach that combined arts and crafts, traditional and modern styles, and form and function. Bauhaus designs were distinguished by their minimalism, geometric shapes, and innovative typography.
Swiss Design (The International Typographic Style)
Following the rational approach of the Bauhaus, this art movement focuses on functionality and universality. In the 1920s, the style originated in various countries, such as Russia, Germany, and the Netherlands. Designers created a cohesive, unified Modernist movement that became famous as the Swiss Design or the International Typographic Style.
Swiss design’s minimalist approach has influenced contemporary branding, UI design, and packaging trends. Influential companies like Apple and Google have popularized this clean aesthetic, emphasizing simplicity over ornamentation. The Swiss Design movement’s use of grids remains a significant contribution to modern design.
The Digital Age![]()
The proliferation of digital tools provides a revolutionary way of creating graphic design. In 1984, Apple launched the Macintosh computer. Its simple, user-friendly interface said, “Hello,” encouraging users to be creators themselves.
In the 1990s, designers started using Photoshop as reliable graphic editing software. The software enables anyone to edit images and create professional designs. Likewise, basic programs such as Microsoft Paint made graphic design accessible to the public.
Rapid advancements in digital software have also allowed designers to create transparency effects, stretch, scale, and distort elements, layer text and images in space, and merge visuals into intricate montages.
A notable example is a 1998 U.S. postage stamp. Designers Ethel Kessler and Greg Berger digitally combined John Singer Sargent’s portrait of Frederick Law Olmsted with a photograph of Central Park, a site plan, and botanical illustrations to honor the landscape architect. This blend of imagery offers a vivid portrayal of Olmsted’s life and contributions.
The Future of Graphic Design
Graphic design has evolved as it becomes more specialized. As advertising and print design improved, new design disciplines emerged. For example, web design, interactive design, UX and UI design, and product design are specialized areas within the design world.
Now that you understand the history of graphic design, do you imagine the future of design? How can you improve as a designer or as a digital marketer? Browse Penji’s gallery to learn how our professional designers create graphic designs for modern businesses. Or watch the demo video that will walk you through Penji’s unlimited graphic design services.
